


Your Touch

by Corvus_Aconitum



Series: Walking On Air [4]
Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Nick Whump, hexenwerk/ empowered touch, past angst, protective caring Sean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-15 19:55:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8070610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corvus_Aconitum/pseuds/Corvus_Aconitum
Summary: Sometimes when you're feeling bad you need the care and touch of your partner. So when Nick is sick Sean takes care of his Grimm in his own special way.





	

**Author's Note:**

> My fluff and care addiction has made itself know again, so here is a new part of 'Walking on Air'. As you know me you most likely also knew that sooner or later we would wind up with a bit of Nick Whump.  
> A short explanation:  
> 'Hexenwerk'/ 'empowered touch' is a skill of my own invention that hexen- and zauberbiester may possess. It can induce mental calm, relaxation, or relieve pain among other things and needs touch to be enacted. The important thing about this kind of manipulation is that the recipient instinctively recognizes what the empowered touch will do to him/ her and that he/ she needs to give his/ her mental consent to it. This in turn means that a 'biest cannot simply manipulate another person against its will.  
> Okay, this was not really short but hopefully will make the story a bit clearer.  
> mon gamin = my brat  
> Now enough of explanations and on to the story!

 

Your Touch:

 

It's early in the evening when Sean steps into their home. He puts away his suit case, takes off jacket and tie and thus prepared comes up quietly behind his Grimm.

 

Nick is obviously unwell.

He has known that before, of course. Today has been one of those rare days when Renard had to head out earlier than his lover, so when Nick called a little later, sounding terrible and saying that he's woken up with a killer of a head cold, Sean has put him on sick leave.

He places warm hands on Nick's shoulders, thumbs beginning to rub and kneed automatically. At once he notices the unnatural heat coming off his Grimm, added to the generally sick appearance.

 

“What are you doing, hmm?” He keeps his words a low murmur, mindful of a most likely roaring headache.

“Trying to die quietly.”

“Always a laudable endeavour.”

“Thought so, too.” Nick props his chin onto his left hand, sitting hunched over at the table, pencil resting limply in his fingers.

“Other than that I am trying to draw a composite image of the man I saw yesterday so long as I remember him clearly... but somehow I've hit a dead end. Or rather my brain has hit a dead end.”

Sean knows that Nick does his best to keep any trace of whining out of those softly spoken words. His beloved hates being ill but what he hates even more is to bother others with it. And thanks to a certain redhead that fear is all too well ingrained in his Grimm's behaviour.

“Though I am proud of you for actually calling in and staying home, you won't get better, if you try to do work while you should be resting. So whatever the result, this ends for today. Come here.”

The pencil is plucked from listless fingers and Nick feels himself being pulled back to rest against his zauberbiest. And already those long, skilled fingers bury in his hair and start to massage his scalp. Nick sighs deeply.

This is good. Better than anything he's felt today.

“You are aware that you are burning up?” There's no accusation in his Captain's tone, it's just a murmured question in the general stream of things.

“Hmm.... Nose is blocked an' my head kills me. Break sounds good.”

His powerful 'biest copies his earlier sigh but his ministrations never stop even for a moment.

“Did you rest at all?”

“Stayed home.”

“That's not necessarily the same.”

“Hmm.”

It is clear that on top of a cold Nick has seriously overdone it and be that only by doing paperwork and piecing together clues of their recent homicide. Spotting case reports and such lying around only confirms his suspicion.

 

Nick gets sick rarely and heals quickly due to his heritage. So waking up and feeling like he did earlier means that, if he had been a mere human instead of a Grimm, he wouldn't have been able to leave bed at all. But his Grimm isn't normal, is he?

 

Still, this is no good.

>>>

The skin of his scalp begins to tingle under the sure hands of his Captain. He really ought to say something:

“Should warn you, if you do hexenwerk right now I'll not be able to get out of this chair under my own steam.”

“Need I remind you that I am half zauberbiest and can draw back on superhuman strength?”

“Now you sound like you are a superhero.”

“And how do you know that I am not? Police Captain by day, zauberbiest by night.”

Nick smiles at that, closing his eyes and sinking back a little further into his 'biest. He recognizes the very moment when a simple massage becomes empowered touch. A slight tingle, energy infusing him, flowing through his being. Taking away pressure, alleviating pain and making all tenseness bleed out of him. Nick's eyes slide shut. He is well aware that this cold has hit him pretty hard and also that after calling in sick this morning he should have simply slept it off.

 

Well, so much for self-preservation. Admitting to weakness and worse inconveniencing others with taking care of him is something he still fears deeply. But fortunately Sean knows and takes matters into his own hands, if necessary. Even with his mind foggy as it is he remembers well and painfully that time when the Royal _needed_ to do that in order to keep Nick from hurting himself by neglecting his own health.

Not even Sean's relaxing touch can stop a shudder of unease from going through him right then.

“No need to fret.” A gentle murmur filled with love and understanding....

An understanding they have reached by trial and error in those early days. The half-zauberbiest has learned that instead of admonishment and scowling his mate needs reassurance and firm guidance. Nick's refusal to ask for help occasionally is not about defiance – not now, anyway – but stemming from a deep seated fear of rejection, of being too much of a burden.

Sean won't go into details now – not even within the safety of his own mind – for it makes him angry and sad, feelings detrimental to empowered touch no matter how easily the skill comes to him.

But a twang of pain for his beloved Grimm remains.

So instead of berating him for not minding his health he takes the decision out of Nick's hands on the rare occasion that it is still necessary to do so.

Like right now.

Long fingers move from scalp to forehead and he alters the flow of energy just so. Hexenwerk is all about the right combination of energetic influx and pattern of touch. Thumbs move from centre to sides, to the Grimm's temples, again and again, setting up a soothing, hypnotic rhythm.

The younger man is perceptive that way, however, noting at once a difference and what it would do to him.

“Nggh.” That low sound, half moan, half attempt at speech voices more than enough for Sean to understand. Nick rapidly blinks his eyes, trying to stay awake despite the Royal's ministrations.

“Shh. You know very well that hexenwerk can only do what you allow it to, so if your subconsciousness doesn't hinder me, then it recognizes its necessity.”

Deep down Nick knows that Sean is right. He _wants_ to sleep, even more importantly, he _wants_ to enjoy his powerful, protective mate's care, but still. Sometimes it is so damn hard to let go, that niggling fear at the back of his mind nearly crippling. Anyway, in the end Nick gives up resistance. He trusts Sean implicitly, gives himself over into the man's capable hands and finally goes slack against him.

“Good. I know you want this. You are entitled to.... Just relax and let me take care of you.”

Sean continues the motion even after Nick's tired eyes slide shut, deepening and prolonging the state to make for a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. It won't take more than a day or two for his Grimm to get better, but to do so he needs plenty of rest, which Renard will definitely ensure. He moves to Nick's side – never stopping to support his weight as he adjusts position – and carefully hoists him up into his arms. Even drawing on wesen strength this is no easy feat but he manages well enough and finally places his beloved Detective onto their large bed.

>>>

Nick is safely ensconced under thick covers by now and adorned in a new change of clothes. He's sweating profusely, this more than anything a sign that his Grimm metabolism already works on expelling the infection from his body, but that in turn means that fever is still raging with undulated ferocity.

He sits down on the edge of their bed and, taking a cloth from a bowl of tepid water, he wrings it out until it's no longer dripping. His sick mate doesn't stir at all when he places it across his forehead but that is what he has intended, a peaceful and deep sleep to help him recover.

Now he only needs to get down the fever to a point where it is no longer draining on the body, so a second and third cloth are taken out and wrapped around the younger man's wrists.

“That's alright. Sleep and get better, mon gamin. I will watch over you.”

These words are whispered barely loud enough for anyone to hear but filled with infinite love. Gently he cards his fingers through his beloved's sweat matted hair, silently vowing to protect and nurture his mate with all that he has.

Nick is strong, resourceful, passionate and good hearted. He would go to hell and beyond to help his friends and loved ones.

To expect him never to need someone to lean on, to support him, though, has been folly on a certain redhead's part, a folly that nearly has destroyed his lovely man. Only by exerting a great amount of control the half-zauberbiest keeps himself from growling. Instead he continues his caress, calming and at the same time reassuring himself that Nick may be sick right now but is on his way back to health.

 

After some time he rises reluctantly, tidies up a bit, calls Hank to tell him that his partner will be out of commission for another day or two and finally returns to replace already warmed compresses with fresh ones.

 

That done the tall imposing Captain can do what he yearns to ever since carrying his Grimm to bed:

He strips out of his clothes, slips into bed next to his mate and gathers him to rest against his own huge frame, encircling and protecting him from whatever evil may decide to interfere with his recuperation. A content growl, that shows far more of his wesen side than is usual for him, can be heard reverberating through the otherwise quiet room before even the powerful 'biest slips off into a light sleep.

 

**Author's Note:**

> A dip into Hurt/ Comfort and a few hints at their past and early days. If this turns out as I hope it will and my mind remains kicked into gear, there will be a part in the series about those difficult early days when they were simply Detective and Captain.


End file.
